Mendocino County landowners fined $37,000 in water bladder spill

A Mendocino County man and his mother have been fined $37,079 for the failure of a giant water bladder that ruptured, spilling up to 80,000 gallons and carrying sediment down a tributary to the Eel River in April 2013.

The deluge of water tore out vegetation, dislodged boulders and scoured the seasonal stream bed before flowing into the Eel River, muddying its waters, according to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, which announced the penalty last week.

“We don’t know whether any harm happened to fish,” said Stormer Feiler, an environmental scientist with the water board. But “the habitat in the (seasonal) stream was completely destroyed.”

The case highlights the risks associated with the widespread use of the huge fabric water bladders on the North Coast, much of it associated with marijuana cultivation, according to water regulators.

The property owners, Polly Franklin, 70, who lives on a farm in England, and her son, Daniel Franklin 40, of Ukiah were storing water in the bladder and two water tanks for fire suppression and for irrigating marijuana plants on their remote Potter Valley property, Feiler said.

The 50,000-gallon bladder had been allowed to overfill, causing it to stretch, then tear at a seam, according to his report. The water board found the damage was a result of negligence.

The spring-fed water tanks and bladder were located on a steep hillside in a remote region of Potter Valley. Polly Franklin said she and her son have owned the 250-acre property since about 2001.

“It was my son’s dream to have a natural little piece of heaven,” she said.

She said she was unaware marijuana was being grown on the property until the water spill in 2013. Satellite images show marijuana has been grown on the property since at least 2011 and continues to be grown there, Feiler said.

Polly Franklin estimated about 100 plants are being grown on the property by a cooperative of medical marijuana patients who raise organic cannabis. She said neither she nor her son, who she said is unemployed, profit from the operation.

“There’s no economic interest out there,” she said. She said the ordeal has been expensive, forcing her to hire a lawyer and biologist to defend herself and to fly back and forth from England.

She said the proposed fine initially was about ?$1 million but that the water board ultimately settled on the much lower amount. She disagreed with many of the water board staff’s conclusions, including that level of damage and amount of water spilled, contending the state figures were exaggerated.

“It’s been pretty crazy,” Polly Franklin said of the past few years dealing with the fallout from the bladder rupture.

The containers have a limited life, Feiler noted. The bladder on the Franklin property was military surplus, made of polymer-coated nylon and designed to hold fuel. Its life expectancy when in use is a maximum of three years, according to an instruction manual. The manual also warns that overfilling the bladder can lead to failure.

Water storage bladders are scattered throughout the North Coast, feeding thousands of gardens from Sonoma County to Del Norte, a region which Feiler said now includes an estimated 45,000 cannabis grow sites.

Across the region, improper water diversion and storage, along with careless and illegal cultivation practices have generated pesticide and sediment pollution and dewatered streams, posing serious risks to the environment, Feiler said.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 707-462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com.